company banned from the Island has escalated to all-out war.

The Royal Gazette can reveal that the Ministry of Telecommunications has seized equipment belonging to US-based GlobalTel and has also accused the company of acting in malice.

Last night Telecommunications Minister Renee Webb said she believed there was "a strong possibility'' that GlobalTel was behind the rash of calls made to the 911 emergency service on Wednesday.

Scores of false alarms were made to the service during the day, raising fears that the telephone system would overload and somebody in real danger would be unable to get through.

The incident followed a move by Government to shut down the two telephone numbers used by GlobalTel which provided an illegal overseas telephone service to residents.

And yesterday, Government said it believed GlobalTel was behind the stunt.

After people with pagers were anonymously asked to call a number beginning with 911, Government immediately opened up the call-back lines again in an attempt to stop the false alarms.

Minister Webb, who has worked tirelessly to ban call-back companies operating in Bermuda despite previously being a customer herself, said she and her ministry would not stop until GlobalTel and the other two illegal providers, believed to be Call Save and Fiber Tel, were out of business here.

And she said she was now compiling a file for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the US, which licenses GlobalTel, in the hope that it would take action.

Minister Webb said: "We have had some problems with GlobalTel. We seized some of their equipment in Bermuda last week, which put them out of action for two days.

"However, they came back up again, so we shut down their two numbers that they were operating from.

"Strangely enough, soon after, the Police began to be inundated with false alarms and I think there is a strong possibility it was GlobalTel who had diverted their numbers deliberately.

"If it was them, I am amazed that somebody could even consider doing that.

There were real concerns that somebody in need of help may not have been able to get through to the 911 service.

"We have informed the FCC about the new legislation and what is happening in Bermuda. If GlobalTel does not desist, it could have its licence withdrawn.

"But in the meantime, GlobalTel is just ignoring us.'' Government declares war on telephone company Both Police and the Ministry are investigating the rash of false alarms on Wednesday, and Government telecommunications officers Hirem Edwards and Greg Swan will continue to clamp down on illegal call-back services.

Mr. Edwards said yesterday that equipment "abusive'' to the new ban on call-back companies was seized by the Government from two separate properties on the Island.

He said the pieces of communications equipment were believed to enable GlobalTel to provide a service in Bermuda.

And he said charges may now follow for the two people alleged to be operating the equipment.

Following the confiscation, the service was down for a couple of days, resulting in customers receiving e-mails from GlobalTel apologising for the service black-out.

However, the service was back up in 48 hours, forcing Government to take more drastic steps and completely shut off their numbers.

Mr. Edwards said: "GlobalTel is up and running again. But we are actively still pursuing ways of stopping this illegal service.

"We know that GlobalTel and the other firms have a significant number of customers on the Island.

"But we are building a case to supply to the FCC. The FCC will only allow call-back companies to operate in countries where it is allowed -- and it is banned here.

"The FCC has the power to persecute companies for operating illegal services.'' Government banned the cheap overseas call-back calls earlier this month in a bid to repay both TeleBermuda International and Cable and Wireless, who have provided a service for years and are based on the Island and have invested in it.

She said call-back companies are not based in Bermuda, do not employ any staff here and pay nothing towards the communications infrastructure, but instead just take business off the Island.

But as part of the ban, she insisted that Island companies be allowed to offer Internet telephone access, which has seen the cost of legal long-distance calls plummet from about $1.25 to just about 26 cents.

She said it would benefit both the consumer and Bermuda and said the aim was to make the Island more competitive.

However, GlobalTel, which claims hundreds of customers on the Island, immediately rose to the challenge and began cold calling residents in Bermuda using an automated voice mail message to urge people to sign up to the company.

It led to complaints from some residents and companies who claimed the lengthy message, which repeated itself three or four times, clogged up their answer machines and switchboards.

Last night a GlobalTel spokesman said the company could not have been responsible for the crisis at the Island's emergency dispatch system, as it have not done any marketing in Bermuda after Christmas.

And in a letter written two weeks ago company president Steve Williams said: "We do not illegally tap into phone lines on the Island. There is no way anyone could do this. We simply and legally send a call from one of our switching centres in the states to Cable and Wireless or TeleBermuda and they terminate the call and earn a fee for doing so.

"Let Cable and Wireless compete for market share and do not give them a handout like your politicians have done for the last 100 years.'' The FCC have promoted on their website and in literature that Bermuda has now banned call-back companies.

Every company in the US that provides an overseas service must have an FCC licence to operate and they can be withdrawn after investigation if companies fail to comply.

However, it is not known whether any company has ever had its licence withdrawn and nobody at the FCC was available to comment yesterday.